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Hungary's Orban slams rights court's rebuke of life-in-prison law

20 May 2014, 22:08 CET
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(BUDAPEST) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Tuesday rejected as "outrageous" a European court's ruling that the country should reform its system of reviewing whole life sentences on human rights grounds.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that the life sentence given to a Hungarian man in 2009 without eligibility for parole violated EU law barring "degrading" and "inhuman" treatment.

Hungary should institute reforms to guarantee the examination of every case and to let prisoners know what they must do to be considered for release, the Strasbourg-based court said.

Orban called the court's decision, which is not final, "outrageous" and said Hungary must reject it.

"This is the latest evidence that in Brussels and Strasbourg, in the European Union, the rights of criminals come before the rights of victims and innocent people," he said at a European Parliament election campaign event in Kormend, western Hungary.

"We have to defend the institution of life imprisonment, which is a significant deterrent to criminals and potential criminals," he added.

The rights group Hungarian Helsinki Committee said all prisoners must have the right to have their sentence reviewed, and that it now expected Hungary's Constitutional Court to rule in line with the ECHR.

According to the national news agency MTI, 33 people are currently serving life sentences in Hungary without recourse to appeal.

CASE OF LÁSZLÓ MAGYAR v. HUNGARY


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